Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Thursday as better-than-expected monthly sales from retailers and a drop in the number of Americans filing claims for jobless benefits pointed to stabilization in the economy.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pay czar Kenneth Feinberg believes the compensation paid to Wells Fargo & Co's chief executive for 2009 "raises serious questions," he told CNBC on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Insurance-like guarantees that American International Group wrote on more than $100 billion in assets held by European banks could remain on the insurer's books longer than anticipated, according to a regulatory filing.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing for jobless benefits fell last week, but a surprise drop in pending home sales to a 10-month low in January underscored the uneven nature of the economic recovery.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit on Thursday voiced support for key Obama administration financial reform goals, including a consumer protection authority, but government watchdogs questioned his earnestness.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. retailers posted their best monthly sales performance since just before the recession started in 2007, as lean inventories meant they did not need to resort to steep discounts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two AIG units settled federal charges that they discriminated against black home buyers on fees for mortgages and will pay $7.1 million for restitution and education efforts, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - With the economy's recovery likely to be slow and hampered by tight credit and a cautious consumer, the Federal Reserve is still far from needing to tighten its extraordinarily loose monetary policy, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Four top executives of Thornburg Mortgage improperly paid themselves handsome bonuses just before the mortgage lender filed for bankruptcy last year, and stole money and ideas from Thornburg to secretly launch a new firm, the bankruptcy trustee in charge of liquidating the lender alleged in a lawsuit.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal appeals court affirmed on Thursday a contempt finding against Dish Network Corp and EchoStar Corp in their long-running patent case against digital video recorder maker TiVo Inc, sending TiVo shares soaring 52 percent.

LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England held fire on both interest rates and quantitative easing on Thursday as it paused to assess the impact of the massive stimulus it has already injected into the economy.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is in no rush to take the popular social-networking site public, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

OSLO (Reuters) - Iceland can get by without more cash from the International Monetary Fund until it needs to refinance debt in 2011, although any big delay will hit its economy, a central banker said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration reasserted its commitment to banning proprietary trading by banks with draft legislative language on Wednesday, despite signs that Congress is unlikely to adopt such a rule.

SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Any job losses from Prudential Plc's planned $35.5 billion acquisition of American International Group's Asian insurance arm will be mainly in back-office operations and not among sales forces, the companies' CEOs told staff in Asia, sources said.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Anheuser-Busch InBev , the world's largest brewer, forecast a challenging start to 2010 with U.S. volumes under pressure after mixed fourth-quarter results buoyed by a sharp increase in Brazilian sales.

(Reuters) - Shareholders of Washington Mutual Inc have filed a complaint against the savings bank holding company for not convening an annual shareholders' meeting for nearly two years, court documents show.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday proposed another new rule to strengthen consumer protections against abusive practices by credit card issuers, including limiting penalty fees and requiring them to reconsider past interest rate hikes.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co , the fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets, paid Chief Executive John Stumpf compensation worth $21.3 million for 2009, a package that likely makes him the highest-paid U.S. bank CEO, according to materials filed with U.S. regulators.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's cabinet approved a sweeping new austerity program on Wednesday, the third in as many months, to rein in a bulging budget deficit and secure European financial support, a government source said.